Rahul Gandhi’s Sangrur Insaaf rally: Old charges against Mann, Modi, Shah; no roadmap for Punjab

Sangrur. The Congress opened its 2027 Punjab campaign from Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s home district on Wednesday, but Rahul Gandhi offered the poll-bound state no new plan. He turned familiar attacks on Mann, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, starting with a personal jibe at Mann’s drinking.

Addressing the crowd at Fagguwala village, the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition recalled his days with Mann in Parliament. “He used to sit with us and tell jokes. But by 11 in the morning, his breath smelt of liquor,” Rahul said. “I am not saying Bhagwant Mann should not drink. That is his personal matter. But if you want to fight drugs, your chief minister cannot be drunk every evening.”

“The Aam Aadmi Party came to power, and you placed your trust in it. Punjab trusted Bhagwant Mann and the Aam Aadmi Party. What was their promise?” he asked. The promise, he said, was to wipe out drugs. “Where have they ended drugs? From which part of Punjab?”

Rahul called Modi a “traitor” and alleged that he acts on US President Donald Trump’s instructions.

He mocked Shah’s promise to make Punjab drug-free in three years, saying Shah would not even remain Home Minister that long. He asked who would answer for the huge drug seizures at the Adani port in Gujarat. On law and order, he said the Centre should answer for the crisis in Manipur instead of lecturing others on crime.

Old charges, no roadmap

Most of what was said from the stage was not new. Mann’s rivals have raised his drinking for years. Rahul had already attacked the Mann government over drugs last month, after anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota was shot dead in Mansa. He wrote on X then that raising a voice against drugs in Punjab had become a “death sentence”. The “vote chori” charge and the attack on Modi have been Congress staples for over a year.

What was missing was any word on what a Congress government would do for Punjab. Rahul said drugs cannot be beaten without jobs, and that Punjab needs industry, factories and stronger farming. But he did not say how the Congress would bring jobs, revive industry or end the drug trade. No other leader on stage announced a promise or a plan either.

Moosewala’s father on stage

The rally’s most emotional moment came when Rahul called Balkaur Singh, father of slain singer Sidhu Moosewala, on stage. Recalling his first meeting with Moosewala, Rahul said, “He was an energetic and talented young man, so I took him into the party.” During that meeting, he said, he sensed the singer was stepping into a dangerous area. “I did not mean physical protection. I meant political protection,” he said. Rahul also questioned the withdrawal of Moosewala’s security before his murder in May 2022.

Kharge: AAP is BJP’s B-team

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called the AAP the BJP’s “B-team”. He alleged it moves in wherever the Congress gains ground, splits its votes and helps the BJP win. “The Punjab government is a government of drugs and corruption,” he said, alleging that money extorted in Punjab was being sent to Delhi.

Kharge said Rahul faces more than 24 FIRs while gangsters roam free in Punjab. Repeating the “vote chori” charge, he accused the BJP and RSS of weakening the country’s institutions. He assured Rahul that the Congress would win Punjab, but gave no promise to voters.

Former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi called Mann “nitt da sharaabi” (a daily drinker). No one would hand their child to Mann, he said, yet people had handed him Punjab. He asked people to choose the Congress to bring the state back on track. PPCC chief Pargat Singh called Punjab a “police state” and said the bodies of young drug victims were lying in mortuaries.

Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said the government that came to power promising a drug-free and corruption-free Punjab had taken both to their peak. “We have sounded the bugle today,” he said. Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla said the rally had made it clear that “a wrong chief minister was elected”. Former PPCC chief Raja Warring alleged that no government employee was happy under AAP rule.

Why Sangrur matters

Mann represented Sangrur in the Lok Sabha before becoming chief minister in 2022, and now holds the Dhuri seat in the district. Sangrur lies in the Malwa belt, which has 69 of Punjab’s 117 Assembly seats. The rally was also the first big test for Pargat Singh, who replaced Warring as state Congress chief last month.

Rahul was to meet Jhota’s family after the rally. Jhota’s father, however, had declined to meet him.

Ahead of the rally, Mann had said rival parties were scared of the support the AAP enjoys. He also quipped that Rahul too would come to Sangrur only to take his name.